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God and the Knowledge of Reality
by Thomas MolnarWritten simply yet comprehensively, Molnar's anlaysis of the history of philosophy and false mysticism leads him to conclude that a return to a moderate realism will save the philosophical enterprise from a series of epistemological and societal absolutes that are embodied in contemporary rationalism and mysticism alike. Issues that have been systematically excluded from discourse will have to be reintroduced into the discussion of person and providence Molnar divided the philosophical systems into two groups according to their vision of God, and consequently of reality One group removes God from the human scope, therefore rendering the world unreal, unknowable, and meaningless. The second group holds that God is immanent in the human soul, thereby emphasizing the human attainment of divine status, and reducing the extra-mental world to a condition of utter imperfection. Either way, the result is a pseudo-mysticism, a denial of the creaturely status of human beings What is most needed, Molnar claims, is a theory of knowledge whose ideal is not fusion but distinction-between God and Man, subject and object, the self and the society. By thus raising the question of philosophy over against magic Molnar seeks to awaken the reader from neo-dogmatic assumptions and restore speculative thought to its traditional place.
God and the Moral Life
by Myriam Renaud Joshua DanielHow do various concepts of God impact the moral life? Is God ultimately required for goodness? In this edited collection, an international panel of contemporary philosophers and theologians offer new avenues of exploration from a theist perspective for these important questions. The book features several approaches to address these questions. Common themes include philosophical and theological conceptions of God with reference to human morality, particular Trinitarian accounts of God and the resultant ethical implications, and how communities are shaped, promoted, and transformed by accounts of God. Bringing together philosophical and theological insights on the relationship between God and our moral lives, this book will be of keen interest to scholars of the philosophy of religion, particularly those looking at ethics, social justice and morality.
God and the Multiverse: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Perspectives (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Religion)
by Klaas KraayIn recent decades, scientific theories have postulated the existence of many universes beyond our own. The details and implications of these theories are hotly contested. Some philosophers argue that these scientific models count against the existence of God. Others, however, argue that if God exists, a multiverse is precisely what we should expect to find. Moreover, these philosophers claim that the idea of a divinely created multiverse can help believers in God respond to certain arguments for atheism. These proposals are, of course, also extremely controversial. This volume collects together twelve newly published essays – two by physicists, and ten by philosophers – that discuss various aspects of this issue. Some of the essays support the idea of a divinely created multiverse; others oppose it. Scientific, philosophical, and theological issues are considered.
God and the Oval Office: The Religious Faith of Our 43 Presidents
by John C. McCollisterA look into how the temporary residents of the White House expressed the deepest of all human feelings—personal religious faith—in their own words.“We need to remember that the separation of church and state must never mean the separation of religious values from the lives of public servants.” —Lyndon B. Johnson“So help me God.” George Washington added those words to the presidential oath, and every president since has followed suit. Whether their faith was devout or doubted, heartfelt or pragmatic, John McCollister plumbs America’s strong and deep spiritual heritage, showing the fascinating and vital role faith played in the lives of each of our forty-three presidents:Thomas Jefferson’s “edited” version of the GospelsAbraham Lincoln’s unique approach to organized religionAndrew Johnson’s “secret” CatholicismJames Garfield’s personal sacrifice of the pulpit for the presidencyDwight Eisenhower’s trust in God’s sovereigntyRonald Reagan’s profound sense of forgivenessGeorge W. Bush’s unapologetic faith in Jesus ChristFrom George Washington to George W. Bush, most of our country’s chief executives have turned to God for assurance, guidance, and hope. Through what they learned in the Bible, bolstered by strength found in prayer, they have led America to become the greatest nation on earth. Timely and timeless, God and the Oval Office tells their story.
God and the Problem of Epistemic Defeaters (Elements in the Problems of God)
by Joshua ThurowAny modern, moderately intellectually mature (MMIM) believer in God faces a variety of epistemic defeaters of their belief in God. Epistemic defeaters challenge the rationality of a belief. After explaining the notion of a defeater and discussing various ways and targets of defeat, this Element categorizes the many defeaters of belief in God into four classes: rebutting, undercutting, base defeaters, and competence defeaters. Then, several general defeaters of theistic belief are examined in some detail: the superfluity argument, the problem of unpossessed evidence, various forms of debunking arguments, and a cumulative case competence defeater. The typical MMIM believer, it is argued, has resources to resist these defeaters, although the cumulative case competence defeater has some force. The strength of its force depends on the strength of grounds for theistic belief and of various defeaters and deflectors for the competence defeater. No easy general defeater of theistic belief is found.
God and the Problem of Evidential Ambiguity (Elements in the Problems of God)
by Max Baker-HytchWhen it comes to what many of us think of as the deepest questions of existence, the answers can seem difficult to make out. This difficulty, or ambiguity, is the topic of this Element. The Element begins by offering a general account of what evidential ambiguity consists in and uses it to try to make sense of the idea that our world is religiously ambiguous in some sense. It goes on to consider the questions of how we ought to investigate the nature of ultimate reality and whether evidential ambiguity is itself a significant piece of evidence in the quest.
God and the Problem of Evil: Five Views (Spectrum Multiview Book Series)
by Chad Meister James K. Dew Jr.Evil abounds. And so do the attempts to understand God in the face of such evil.God and the Problem of EvilPhillip Cary: A Classic ViewWilliam Lane Craig: A Molinist ViewWilliam Hasker: An Open Theist ViewThomas J. Oord: An Essential Kenosis ViewStephen Wykstra: A Skeptical Theism ViewGod and the Problem of Evil
God and the Problem of Logic (Elements in the Problems of God)
by Andrew Dennis BassfordClassical theists hold that God is omnipotent. But now suppose a critical atheologian were to ask: Can God create a stone so heavy that even he cannot lift it? This is the dilemma of the stone paradox. God either can or cannot create such a stone. Suppose that God can create it. Then there's something he cannot do – namely, lift the stone. Suppose that God cannot create the stone. Then, again, there's something he cannot do – namely, create it. Either way, God cannot be omnipotent. Among the variety of known theological paradoxes, the paradox of the stone is especially troubling because of its logical purity. It purports to show that one cannot believe in both God and the laws of logic. In the face of the stone paradox, how should the contemporary analytic theist respond? Ought they to revise their belief in theology or their belief in logic? Ought they to lose their religion or lose their mind?
God and the Processes of Reality: Foundations of a Credible Theism (Routledge Revivals)
by David A. PailinCan belief in God be rational? David A. Pailin identifies the reasons behind this questioning of theistic faith in his book God and the Processes of Reality (originally published in 1989) and demonstrates how the supposed incoherences in the concept of God are due to the generalization of partial insights. He establishes the basic character of the concept of God, and examines the nature of the major attributes of the divine and of the relationship of God to the processes of reality, looking at God as creator, the relation of God to historical events, and the role of God as the basis for individual fulfilment.The book takes up many of the insights developed by Whitehead and Hartshorne in what is commonly known as process thought. Pailin explains these insights and counters common misapprehensions about them critically, sometimes radically so, to present a credible understanding of the God of theistic belief and a coherent understanding of the relationship of that God to the processes of reality. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of religion and philosophy.
God and the Self in Hegel: Beyond Subjectivism (SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy)
by Paolo Diego BubbioGod and the Self in Hegel proposes a reconstruction of Hegel's conception of God and analyzes the significance of this reading for Hegel's idealistic metaphysics. Paolo Diego Bubbio argues that in Hegel's view, subjectivism—the tenet that there is no underlying "true" reality that exists independently of the activity of the cognitive agent—can be avoided, and content can be restored to religion, only to the extent that God is understood in God's relation to human beings, and human beings are understood in their relation to God. Focusing on traditional problems in theology and the philosophy of religion, such as the ontological argument for the existence of God, the Trinity, and the "death of God," Bubbio shows the relevance of Hegel's view of religion and God for his broader philosophical strategy. In this account, as a response to the fundamental Kantian challenge of how to conceive the mind-world relation without setting mind over and against the world, Hegel has found a way of overcoming subjectivism in both philosophy and religion.
God and the State (Select Bibliographies Reprint Ser.)
by Michael BakuninA founder of modern philosophical anarchism presents a clear introduction to anarchist thought and a manifesto of atheism. Bakunin offers a mind-opening experience for even the most skeptical readers. This influential work denounces religion as a weapon of the state that must be smashed in the pursuit of the right to self-determination.
God and the World's Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion
by Stephen Phillips Matthew Dasti Nirmalya GuhaThe work of three present-day Sankritist-philosophers, God and the World's Arrangement allows readers to engage directly with writings of the classical Indian philosophers Śaṅkara and Vācaspati, as well as some of their most acute critics, on the question of whether the existence of a creator God can be known by reason alone. Carefully selected and annotated with the needs of students foremost in mind, these new translations will be of interest to anyone wishing to see up close a newly set gem of our philosophical inheritance from global antiquity.
God at Play: Līlā in Hindu and Christian Traditions (Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions)
by Daniel SoarsThe first comparative treatment of the topic of līlā in Hindu and Christian traditions, this volume explores what it means to consider divine and human action under the categories of play, wit, drama, grace, and compassionGod at Play presents a theological exploration of the multifaceted motif of līlā across diverse Hindu and Christian landscapes and its wide-ranging connections to divine and human creativity. Given its ubiquity in Hindu theologies and life-forms, līlā offers a rich comparative framework for exploring certain ways of understanding divine and human action as expressed in Hindu and Christian sacred texts, philosophical theology, and ritual practices.Though līlā is often interpreted simply as “play,” the essays in this volume reflect a far richer semantic and conceptual field, ranging from spontaneity and gratuitousness, through joy and humor, to mercy and compassion. By focusing on the different contexts in which līlā is found in Hindu traditions and resisting any uniform translation of the term, the contributors to this volume avoid the risk of using predominantly western or Christian categories to understand the Hindu other. The volume thus explores how līlā functions in a variety of distinctive philosophical, theological, and devotional ways across Hindu traditions, and listens for echoes in Christian understandings of the gratuitousness of the created order in relation to God.God at Play is a genuine experiment in deep learning across traditions. Each chapter reflects on what is learned by taking līlā as the category of comparison and invites the reader to think about what these conversations add, confirm, or change in relation to earlier twentieth-century scholarship on play—not least, in terms of what difference it might make to understand human life as an imitation and a participation in the divine life of a playful deity.
God in Himself: Scripture, Metaphysics, and the Task of Christian Theology (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture)
by Steven J. DubyHow do we know God? Can we know God as he is in himself?
God in Pain
by Slavoj Zizek Ellen Elias-Bursac Boris GunjevicA brilliant dissection and reconstruction of the three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, from one of the world's most articulate intellectuals, Slavoj Zizek, in conversation with Croatian philosopher Boris Gunjévic. In six chapters that describe Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in fresh ways using the tools of Hegelian and Lacanian analysis, God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse shows how each faith understands humanity and divinity--and how the differences between the faiths may be far stranger than they may at first seem. Chapters include (by Zizek) (1) "Christianity Against Sacred," (2) "Glance into the Archives of Islam," (3) "Only Suffering God Can Save Us," (4) "Animal Gaze," (5) "For the Theologico-Political Suspension of the Ethical," (by Gunjevic) (1) "Mistagogy of Revolution," (2) "Virtues of Empire," (3) "Every Book Is Like Fortress," (4) "Radical Orthodoxy," (5) "Prayer and Wake."
God in Post-Christianity: An Elemental Philosophical Theology (SUNY series in Theology and Continental Thought)
by Lenart ŠkofGod in Post-Christianity combines Eastern and Western influences into a dazzling survey of the contemporary theological landscape. Reading "the age of the Spirit" as "the age of the Breath," the book argues for a material, elemental, and sensory theology of God following the death of the ontotheological God of metaphysics. Drawing inspiration equally from Irigaray and Feuerbach, it offers a vision of God that is both feminist and humanist, a divine becoming for humanity, a sacred alliance with Nature. By presenting and analyzing the modern philosophies of Hegel, Schelling, and Merleau-Ponty, as well as such contemporary figures as John Caputo and Catherine Keller, and by drawing on unexpected, forgotten, or neglected sources such as Vedic poetry and American Mormonism and figures such as Averroes and Amalric of Bène, the book makes an original argument about God that resonates with currents in new materialism, comparative theology, and affect theory. Both speculative and mythopoetic, it is intended to forge a way forward for humanity to achieve the intersubjective and interreligious peace we all crave and deserve.
God in Public: How the Bible Speaks Truth to Power Today
by N. T. WrightDrawing on a collection of lectures that N. T. Wright delivered from 1999 to 2015, God in Public brings together the message of Jesus--in its larger biblical context--and the challenges of the contemporary public and political worlds.In this book, Wright challenges the West's response to 9/11 and then expands to discuss a more Jesus-inspired way of approaching the public problems we find ourselves in, based on following Jesus' life and teachings.As Wright demonstrates the many ways in which faithful exegesis of scripture can throw fresh light--God's light--on the great philosophical and ethical problems of our day, he discusses urgent questions such as: What has Christianity to do with power?Why must the church remind those in authority of their responsibilities?What can Christians do to act as the voice of the voiceless?
God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Global Civil Society
by Mark Juergensmeyer Dinah Griego John SoboslaiHow is religion changing in the twenty-first century? In the global era, religion has leapt onto the world stage, though often in contradictory ways. Some religious activists are antagonistic and engage in protests, violent acts, and political challenges. Others are positive and help to shape an emerging transnational civil society. A new global religion may be in the making, providing a moral and spiritual basis for a worldwide community of concern about environmental issues, human rights, and international peace. God in the Tumult of the Global Square explores all of these directions, based on a five-year Luce Foundation project that involved religious leaders, scholars, and public figures in workshops held in Cairo, Moscow, Delhi, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, and Santa Barbara. In this book, the voices of these religious observers around the world express both the hopes and fears about new forms of religion in the global age.
God is Bigger Than the Bible: We Are God's Stories
by Raymond MoodyDr. Raymond Moody looks at God and how his personal understanding of the Creator has changed over the course of his life and research into near-death experiences. Dr. Moody organizes his insights about God into 13 simple and profound ideas and walks us through them using stories and examples from his own life and from accounts of encounters with God in the hereafter. He looks at our society's beliefs about God, how religion can both help and hinder our relationships with the Divine, and how we can bring Source into our lives with a new understanding that transcends all limits.
God is Dead. God Remains Dead. And We Have Killed Him. (Penguin Great Ideas)
by Friedrich Nietzsche'We have left dry land and put out to sea! We have burned the bridge behind us - what is more, we have burned the land behind us!'Nietzsche's devastating demolition of religion would have seismic consequences for future generations. With God dead, he envisages a brilliant future for humanity: one in which individuals would at last be responsible for their destinies.One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.
God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World
by Andrew WilsonAbstract theology is overrated, for God can be found in even the most ordinary of things. Jesus used things like a lily, sparrow, and sheep to teach about the kingdom of God. And in the Old Testament, God repeatedly describes himself and his saving work in relation to physical things such as a rock, horn, or eagle.In God of All Things, pastor and author Andrew Wilson invites you to rediscover God in this way, too--through ordinary, everyday things. He explores the idea of a material world and presents a variety of created marvels that reveal the gospel in everyday life and fuel worship and joy in God--marvels like:Dust: the image of GodHorns: the salvation of GodDonkeys: the peace of GodWater: the life of GodViruses: the problem of GodCities: the kingdom of GodGod of All Things will leave you with a deeper understanding of Scripture, the world you live in, and the God who made it all.
God of Many Names: Play, Poetry and Power in Hellenic Thought, From Homer to Aristotle
by Mihai I. SpariosuTracing the interrelationship among play, poetic imitation, and power to the Hellenic world, Mihai I. Spariosu provides a revisionist model of cultural change in Greek antiquity. Challenging the traditional and static distinction made between archaic and later Greek culture, Spariosu's perspective is grounded in a dialectical understanding of values whose dominance depends on cultural emphasis and which shifts through time.Building upon the scholarship of an earlier volume, Dionysus Reborn, Spariosu her continues to draw on Dionysus--the "God of many names," of both poetic play and sacred power--as a mythical embodiment of the two sides of the classical Greek mentality. Combining philosophical reflection with close textual analysis, the author examines the divided nature of the Hellenic mentality in such primary canonic texts as the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Theogony, Works and Days, the most well-known of the Presocratic fragments, Euripides' Bacchae, Aristophanes' The Frogs, Plato's Republic and Laws, and Aristotle's Poetics and Politics.Spariosu's model illuminates the many of the most enduring questions in contemporary humanistic study and addresses modern questions about the nature of the interrelation of poetry, ethics, and politics.
God on the Grounds: A History of Religion at Thomas Jefferson's University
by Harry Y. GambleFree-thinking Thomas Jefferson established the University of Virginia as a secular institution and stipulated that the University should not provide any instruction in religion. Yet over the course of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth, religion came to have a prominent place in the University, which today maintains the largest department of religious studies of any public university in America. Given his intentions, how did Jefferson's university undergo such remarkable transformations?In God on the Grounds, esteemed religious studies scholar Harry Gamble offers the first history of religion’s remarkably large role—both in practice and in study—at UVA. Jefferson’s own reputation as a religious skeptic and infidel was a heavy liability to the University, which was widely regarded as injurious to the faith and morals of its students. Consequently, the faculty and Board of Visitors were eager throughout the nineteenth century to make the University more religious. Gamble narrates the early, rapid, and ongoing introduction of religion into the University’s life through the piety of professors, the creation of the chaplaincy, the growth of the YMCA, the multiplication of religious services and meetings, the building of a chapel, and the establishment of a Bible lectureship and a School of Biblical History and Literature. He then looks at how—only in the mid-twentieth century—the University began to retreat from its religious entanglements and reclaim its secular character as a public institution. A vital contribution to the institutional history of UVA, God on the Grounds sheds light on the history of higher education in the United States, American religious history, and the development of religious studies as an academic discipline.
God the What?: What Our Metaphors for God Reveal about Our Beliefs in God
by Carolyn Jane Bohler<p>"We do not have to let go of one sense of God to take up another. Neither do we need to go about challenging old metaphors. What is crucial is to find a metaphor--or two, or six--that creatively point toward what we believe." --from Chapter 1 <p>Let Carolyn Jane Bohler inspire you to consider a wide range of images of God in order to refine how you imagine God to have and use power, and how God wills and makes divine will happen--or not. By tapping into your God-given ability to re-imagine God, you will have a better understanding of your own beliefs and how you, God and the world relate to each other. <p>Wonderfully fresh and down to earth, Bohler uses playful images, moving stories and solid scholarship to empower you to break free of old habits and assumptions, whatever your faith tradition. She encourages you to explore new names for God that are not only more consistent with what you believe, but will also deepen and expand your experience of God. Think about ... <p> <li>God the Choreographer of Chaos <li>God the Nursing Mother <li>God the Jazz Band Leader <li>God the Divine Blacksmith <li>God the Divine Physical Therapist <li>God the Team Transformer <li>... and more</li> </p>
God's Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe
by J. Warner WallaceThere are four ways to die, and only one of them requires an intruder. Suicides, accidental, and natural deaths can occur without any evidence from outside the room. But murders typically involve suspects external to the crime scene. If there's evidence of an outside intruder, homicide detectives have to prepare for a chase. Intruders turn death scenes into crime scenes. Join J. Warner Wallace, former atheist, seasoned cold-case detective, and popular national speaker as he tackles his most important case ... with you on the jury! With the expertise of a cold-case detective, J. Warner examines eight critical pieces of evidence in the "crime scene" of the universe to determine if they point to a Divine Intruder. If you have ever wondered if something (or someone) outside the natural realm created the universe and everything in it, this is the case for you.